Wild Nights with Emily (2018) on Netflix
In Amherst, Emily Dickinson falls for her friend Susan Gilbert while they perform lovers in a Shakespeare recitation. The two keep their romance hidden from everyone around them.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.2/101,560 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
As teenagers, Emily Dickinson and Susan Gilbert meet during a recitation at the Amherst Shakespeare Society, where they play lovers, and the parts lead to a kiss on a walk afterward. When Emily's family goes away for a month, Susan stays with her, and the two continue to spend time together while hiding their relationship from the people around them. Susan takes a teaching post out west, and the pair exchange countless love letters until she returns. Susan then tells Emily she has become engaged to Emily's brother Austin, a plan she kept secret: marriage will support her, and a house built beside Emily's will keep their romance unnoticed.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wild Nights with Emily (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Madeleine Olnek cast Molly Shannon as Emily Dickinson after the two had attended NYU together, where Olnek directed a performance in which she first created the character Mary Katherine Gallagher. Shannon was surprised to be asked, since Dickinson is not a role Hollywood would typically offer her.
- A rough cut of Wild Nights with Emily won the "US in Progress" award at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, which included a prize of €50,000 for post production and promotion.
SPOILER
Madeleine Olnek was inspired to write the film by a New York Times Magazine article about new scientific advances changing perceptions of historical figures, which described how Emily Dickinson's correspondence was altered to conceal her lifelong relationship with another woman.- After accusations of "rewriting history," Madeleine Olnek put together a 40-page "historical packet" of research supporting her characterization of Emily Dickinson and her relationships.
